We have a fun new group that I invite everyone to join. It’s our very own group page over at Upcoming.org. We’ll use it to post events (when we have one). Check it out.

Schedules will change on Monday, Aug. 29 for a number of SEPTA Suburban Transit Division Victory District routes. SEPTA’s City Transit Division schedules will change on Sunday, Sept. 4.

New timetables are available now at SEPTA sales offices, on vehicles and at SEPTA transportation districts. The schedules will also be available on the SEPTA web site at http://www.septa.org. For additional information riders should call the SEPTA Customer Service Department at (215) 580-7800.

Riders will also find that Suburban Victory and Frontier Routes 93, 110, 123, 124 and 125 will now operate an enhanced Sunday schedule on Labor Day to accommodate the hours of major shopping malls. Special timetables will be issued to riders around the holiday.

In addition, Routes 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 14, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 31, 32, 33, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 46, 47, 47M, 48, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 64, 65, 70, 73, 80, 88, 310, C, G, HXH, K, R, and LUCY have been added to the bicycle accessible route network. All City and Suburban Transit Division bus Routes (with the exception of Routes 23, 29, 59, 66, 75, 79) will be equipped with front-mounted bicycle racks that can accommodate two bikes.
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One of my best friends in high school was named Katrina. As she was the only one I knew with that name, I always associated it with a certain sweet disposition. My associations have now been shot to ribbons by the hurricane that is currently thwacking New Orleans. My thoughts are with all the folks who live down there, whose lives are being permanently altered, rearranged and destroyed. Check out Metroblogging New Orleans for first hand accounts and updates.

The William Penn statue on top of City Hall is visible from all over the city, and is an impressive piece of sculpture. But viewed from one particular angle on the parkway, William doesn’t look dignified, he looks, well…excited. This particular picture was on the philly.com website tonight when I scooted by, and I was kinda amused that this is the one they chose to post.

I’d like someone to explain to me how these 5 locations are convenient to most of Philadelphia, because the recycling people seem to think so.

George Shinn is someone I know from the Unitarian Church in Center City, and his artwork is being featured in the last Daffy’s display window on 17th Street. His art is bright, exaggerated and really intriguing. Go check him out!

Wow, it’s finally happening. Girard Avenenue’s Trolley, Route 15, is slated to begin server September 4th.

Girard Avenue will be transformed beginning Sunday, September 4 when SEPTA trolley service returns to Route 15. The historic green and cream PCC trolleys will look familiar to longtime riders, but step aboard and you will experience some new features

Not the motorized kind, a kid’s scooter. I just noticed them all in my South Philly neighborhood outside unattended at 9:30 at night and the scooter wasn’t even locked up!

Everyone knows that leaving a bicycle, locked up or not, out of doors in Philadelphia is tantamount to giving the thing away. I once locked up a ten speed outside my apartment on Lombard Street. Straight away, the front tire was gone. I noticed when I left for work the following morning. By the time I had gotten home, the forks and handle bars were taken as well. I left the bike outside and watched as it disappeared, day by day, until nothing was left but the frame and my kryptonite lock.

Tonight, on my three block walk home from the CVS at 10th and Reed, I counted four bikes and a scooter, all outside, and all whole. What is it with this neighborhood? The day I moved, I was so exhausted that I parked my car with all the windows down and left it that way overnight. The next day I discovered my error, but was relieved to find that nothing was touched. My car was perfectly fine. How could that be?

This area certainly doesn’t look any nicer or safer than any other part of the city. We gots trash, loads of it, and no more cops than I see anywhere else. So what is it?

I think it’s the old Italian guys that sit outside. It’s gotta be. These guys, they sit outside all day and anyone who’s been to South Philly knows that when I say all day I mean all day. It’s more than a full time job. I always thought it was a bit funny, but now I’m seeing that it’s actually a valuable thing. I’ve lived a block of the square and in Society Hill, but I have to say that this area around the Capitolo Playground in South Philly is safer than both those places and cheaper, too.

All I’m saying is that when you come down here for a cheese steak, you don’t have to worry. If I a kid’s scooter can survive here overnight, you be just fine.

Booze is expensive in Philly. Or rather, it can be. $10 for a 3oz martini? Yeah, that’s too much, Steven Starr. Some folks at Philly.com thought so, too so they hit a small sample of Center City night spots to see how the booze measured up…literally.

“So we did what any booze-loving Philadelphian would do: We broke out a measuring cup in booths, on outdoor decks, in sports bars and at hangouts all over town and got nitpicky down to the ounce to find the best deals based on how much places pour vs. how much they charge.”

The results:

I went to high school in Portland, OR (Lincoln High School, class of ‘97 to be exact). That doesn’t naturally lend itself to running into a whole lot of people around here that I knew from those days. Except that it kind of keeps happening to me.

There’s this guy named Matt, who I went to middle and high school with. Three years ago, about six months into my tenure in Philly, I was listening to Morning Edition on WHYY, and heard a really familiar voice talking. Turns out it was Matt. He had gone to college around here and had stayed to start a newspaper (the currently on hiatus Philadelphia Independent). The reason I write about this now his name has popped up again, this time in the cover article of the PW this week. I’ve never actually seen him in the almost four years that we’ve both lived in Philly, but it’s kind of fun to know he’s out there.